Adaptation of the Species: iBooks Author in the Classroom

Special Thanks to Ms. Nikki Morrell for her contribution to this blog post: 

I once overheard a colleague state that textbooks are outdated; that flat images on paper are going the way of the dinosaur—extinct.

Okay, so admittedly, that educator was me, and perhaps the statement is a bit premature, as many students do not yet own laptops or tablets.  But the revolution is coming! I’ve got my “end of the world as we know it” sign ready to display.

Our students need interactive textbooks with images and words that can be manipulated, books that encourage them to be active participants in their own education.  Just think what Google has done for homework help.  If you can name a subject, chances are that somewhere on the internet is a website or even a tutor to help. Students can Facebook, Tweet, or Skype with anyone, anywhere. This new generation is permanently connected to media, growing up with their digital devices as additional appendages.  Even preschoolers are now learning on tablets. If there is any doubt, just take a look at the new Disney’s AppMATes  or Mattel’s Apptivity.—these new apps allow partnered toys to be moved about on the face of the iPad while the app interacts with those toys.

So, the question is:  shouldn’t our textbooks allow the same interaction with content?

With iBooks Author and iPad, educators are able to create their own textbooks for their courses, to make those books interactive by adding pictures, graphs, links to websites and activities; we can add lecture files and videos, even reading checks and quizzes at the end of each section. For the first time, a teacher can step away from what the textbook companies think her students need and explore what she knows her students need.  And perhaps the most impressive feature—iBooks Author and the iBooks app are FREE.

In August, I had my first experience with iBooks Author.  I co-authored an iBook for a conference–#Reaching the Tweeps- The Role of Social Media in Education.  As with any new endeavor, I worried about the difficulty of using the iBooks Author software, but it is much like Pages or Microsoft Word.  With just a few clicks, teachers are able to copy, paste, and insert from documents that they’ve already made and load everything into an iBook template. Pictures, videos, and audio clips can also be added with a few swipes of the mouse.  Author software is so intuitive, your inserted passages and objects will be automatically positioned for you.  The end result will be a professional ebook.

Use iBooks Author to publish your own course materials:

1.  curate a variety of content—websites, documents, pdfs, pictures, sound clips, or videos
2.  share your content with students, parents, and co-workers for free—even publishing with a password requirement
3. embed interactive models for students to turn, twist, spin, and manipulate
4. include links for any websites—e-magazines, e-newspapers, online quizzes, and games
5. content can be made available anywhere for students on-the-go
6. publish quickly and easily, and update your book after it is published

While iBooks Author is a great tool for teachers to create content, it is also an excellent way for students to publish their own work.  For example, one of my classes is currently writing a novel.  Each student is composing one chapter of a fictional story. We will be publishing this work as an iBook when we’ve finished, and to say that my class is excited is an understatement! The quality of work that is being produced is far superior to assignments I’ve received in the past. Why? Because their story will be published—officially “purchasable” by others as an ebook.  It gives their effort meaning; their hard work, reward.

Use iBooks Author for student publications:

1. Your students can create an iBook of their coursework and publish it as a portfolio or final project.
2. Your students can collaborate to create study guides for other students.
3. Your students can publish a literary or arts magazine for your school with no publication costs.
4. Your students can work together to create their own novel or anthology of original short stories.

As with any new software or device, there are drawbacks. Your students must have iPads to view the books; the iTunes processing time can vary (our #Reaching the Tweeps ebook took less than 24 hours), and your content must be original or royalty free.

For my own courses, it is the juggling of online videos, YouTube clips, ancillary reading, newspaper and magazine articles, art, and other media and text that creates confusion in class.  As I work on my iBook for next year – to use as the “textbook” for the course—I begin to realize that my students will be able to locate everything in one place.  The balancing act will be a bit easier.

Isn’t that what technology is really meant to do: make our lives easier and better organized? I’ve spoken with a lot of people who disdain ebooks and iBooks—vowing that the paper versions will always be their choice. But as a teacher today, I know I need to reach my students where they live.

And many of them have never even stepped foot inside a library.

Just in time for the holiday season, my English III class's iBook became available on iTunes last night!  A fictional work about each student's experience during a hostile alien takeover, Exodus: a Novel  is the culmination of hard work and dedication by these amazing juniors!  (It also has a chapter by Ms. Jen Howard and our Headmaster Mr. Glenn Chapin!)

 Available on iBooks for iPad:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/exodus-a-novel/id589017773?mt=11

Article originally published Nov. 2, 2012 on http://www.edsocialmedia.com/2012/11/adaptation-of-the-species-ibooks-author-in-the-classroom/

Should Students Need a Driver's Permit to Cruise Social Media?

Special Thanks to Ms. Morrell for allowing us to share this article and important message! 

Let’s imagine.  Your daughter is finally sixteen and you bought her a car for her birthday. As you watch her close the door and fasten her seatbelt, you say those two little words… “Go on.”  Now, you and I both know that you didn’t give her any lessons or hire her an instructor.  In fact, you forgot to have her take the driving test.

Is this responsible of you as a parent?

Of course it’s not. It’s ludicrous.  But the funny thing is that this is what we are doing with our children and our students.  We are giving them the most amazing vehicle—technology, but we are forgetting the importance of safety education and teaching them how to both “drive” these devices and navigate this information highway.

Let’s face it—cruising the web, especially social media, is sometimes as dangerous as driving a car, but prohibiting the use of social media doesn’t stop it; it only makes it more dangerous because it becomes secret.  As educators, we must begin to instruct our students in proper driving technique and etiquette.

Speaking of etiquette, those of us in education need to review safe practices as well.  Taking the car analogy a step further, most teachers would never find themselves alone in the car with one of their students; in today’s lawsuit-happy world, we should avoid any situation where our word is up against that of a child in our care.  And just as we would not get into a car alone with a one of our students, we must not enter into a social relationship online—no private chats, private Facebook messages, or personal non-school related emails.   There are ways to interact, yet we must use them carefully and publically.    We must be wary and we must be wise.  But we also—MUST.

Today, with budget cuts, the internet is one of our greatest resources, especially with textbooks, podcasts, and youtube videos all for free.  There’s Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and so many networking sites that are just waiting to find a place in education.  The world is at our fingertips, in our smart phones, tablets, and laptops, and most of us are finding that simple words on blank pages no longer cut it.  We are trying to drive our beat-up VW Bus in a stock car race.  We aren’t going to win.

The good news is that the racetrack hasn’t changed; education is still about engagement, pure and simple.  Students who are interested learn; students who are bored don’t.  There is a place for social media in our classrooms, just as there is a place for iPads and smart phones.

The key for us as educators is to balance innovation with safety.

We shouldn’t have to ask who’s driving the VW bus?  None of us should be—we need to meet our digital-native students where they learn best.  But we also should not have to wonder if the person driving the stock car has a license either—let’s teach our students to drive safely.

This article was originally post to www.edsocialmedia.com by Ms. Morrell, English Teacher and Lead Senior Advisor at Lake Mary Prep

Photo credit:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/rabble/2631710784/  Photo design credit: Jason S. and Cherie R.

Technology Focus Group

We are pleased with the outcome of our first Technology Focus Group session. Thank you to all who participated, including parents, teachers, and LMP tech specialists. Our work together was substantive, the conversation spirited and far-ranging in its implications.   

We spent our time together acknowledging the following:

Undoubtedly we are committed to putting more technology in the hands of our students so it becomes a regular and increasing part of their daily learning....

However, two big essential questions arise:

1.              What technology?

2.              And for what purpose?

In starting to form our answers, we as parents and as school acknowledge:

•   That many of our assumptions about technology may be obsolete before they have a chance to be put in place, such is the rate of change in technology

•   That our children, as digital natives, will have or already have greater fluency with technology than we as digital immigrants do

•   Nonetheless, there are critical thinking and high-level reasoning skills that we as adult learners have that must betransmitted into a student’s use of technology

•   Our prime mission is to teach critical thinking and determine how technology enhances that mission

•   The answer is not to teach technology per se, but use it skillfully as a tool to inspire students to reason and create at high levels

•   How do we prepare students to think like this?

•   How do we create a culture of innovation? and how does technology lead to that?

We encourage you to watch the same video we started our session with and ask yourself the same questions we asked: 

·      How do we prepare students to be able to think like this...like the composer who wished to lead a choir of 183 people around the world simultaneously via internet?

·      How do we prepare students to be participants in an innovative project like this, willing to engage in risk and sing in a virtual choir?

·      How do we prepare students to seize opportunities that haven't been thought of before?  (Or are they already thinking this way?) 

Either way, what role do we play as a school to equip students to be successful in a world that is not-yet-imagined?

We invite you to join in the conversation! We welcome your comment below and invite you to stay connected using this virtual document. We will continue to discuss ideas and questions on this doc until our next Tech Focus Group on Wednesday, December 12^th, 8:30-9:30am in the Griffin Café. We hope you can join us, or feel free to join remotely through Skype or TodaysMeet. Send us a quick email to be added to the group or click the links below.

Your voice matters.

The World According to Glenn...

Continuing the Conversation...

Last week I described how places we have lived, the things we have seen, the conflicts we have resolved--or abandoned--largely determine our values and perspective on the world.

I recognize my experiences in education may be different than most, so thought it important to share how two great influences have shaped the priorities I have for schools and the game plan at LMP.

Growing Up In Silicon Valley & Coming of Age in a Global Society

For me the world changed when my family moved to San Jose, California:

• We lived just a few blocks from where Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs were inventing the first Apple computers in their garage.
• Silicon Valley was beginning to take shape: Engineers, risk-takers, and dreamers were moving in to lead the revolution in information technology.
• Intel, HP, Apple, Yahoo, Google, and later Facebook, Twitter, Zynga and Angry Birds followed, and the world has never been the same.

Family and friends were involved in that revolution, and from them I learned the power and importance of innovation. To see things anew, to think differently, to add improvements to something that already exists, that is the spirit of innovation.

In Silicon Valley young and old alike seek out opportunities to innovate and celebrate new ideas when they arrive. This spirit transcends age, gender, race, and political or religious belief, and the world is richer--in countless ways--as a result.

Schools need to teach students how to innovate, not merely study how others have innovated. The desire and ability to innovate is a survival skill in the 21^st century.

Schools need to be places where students grow ideas and learn to harness their power, both for utilitarian and humanitarian good. This is the spirit of innovation. We learn math and science and languages in school for a reason—not only for our own growth and career ladder success, but to contribute to the vast library of human knowledge and find ways to put it to good use.

How do we get started? We start small and find things within reach. The potential to innovate is inborn in each of us; it is a creative response that comes naturally and can be trained to high levels.

One of the first steps is to become fluent in innovation. Just as in languages, we start by giving names to things. When we name, we recognize. Have you ever noticed how you see more birds flying overhead if you know the different species? Or see a play unfold by a football team if you know the players’ names and their positions? Otherwise, without basic naming, that flock of birds taking flight or that football team racing down the field is just a mass of movement.

Let’s give naming a try. Check out this exciting example from marketing guru DannyBrown.  Here we see innovation as a chess match between two European automotive titans, Audi and BMW. Click on the caption to see the story unfold.

Two Awesome Examples of Marketing Done Right...

Boasting its newest model, Audi posts a billboard publicly challenging rival BMW.  BMW seizes the moment, innovates with the perfect response and plants a billboard right across the street. AUDI counters with a knockout punch, only to be upstaged one more time by BMW.

Innovation is seen in both companies as they rise to the challenge of the moment. They spy a new opportunity to respond; they see something anew.  Recognizing how they can build upon their reputations as tastemakers and trendsetters, they take the chance and zing! the effect is impressive. This is innovation.

Closer to home, let’s name how Lake Mary Prep students use innovation for a higher cause:

• Grade 10 student Briana Bloss identified early in her educational career a wish to support breast cancer awareness.
•  Rather than simply fundraise for the cause, Briana instead built an entire campaign to increase awareness, student and parent involvement, and ever growing support for a therapeutic spa at Florida Hospital.
• Her innovation--to reach out with new ideas and add to something already in place—continues to inspire everyone Briana comes in contact with. In turn, these students are crafting innovative strategies to build upon ideas and causes they believe are important.  

Next week we’ll explore further student innovation at LMP and the multiplier effect it has.

The World According to Glenn

A word from our Headmaster:

As a young man charging into adulthood, I looked to writers and novelists for what my future might hold.  John Irving’s seminal novel The World According to Garp provided a wealth of insight that I continue to draw upon to this day. The novel describes the unique, colorful life of one TS Garp, and 35 years later I continue to see parallels. I happily borrow the title.

You see, Garp led me to understand how each of us is profoundly shaped by past and present experiences. The places we have lived, the things we have seen, the conflicts we have resolved--or abandoned--largely determine our values and perspective on the world. We mirror back our past as priorities about what we want to do in the future.

The purpose of this blog is to begin a conversation with you about education and priorities at Lake Mary Prep--to blend our past and present and forge a strong future. Around the world education is undergoing significant change, and we at Lake Mary are standing right in the middle of it. It is an exciting time to be involved, to share ideas and opinions and shape that future. For many parents, the education their children are receiving is different from what they experienced. How to make sense of this and feel assured that new directions will deliver results?

This is where our conversation begins. We may agree or disagree, or find we share common ideals and uncommon truths. Regardless, we’ll all be richer for the discussion and our school stronger as a result.

Let’s start with a handful of topics we’ll be discussing in future, to broaden our understanding and build capacity:

·      What is a Critical-Thinking School?

·      Is There a Meritas Advantage?

·      What is Brain-Based Learning?

·      What Are Colleges Really Looking For?

·      Is an International Perspective Really Necessary?

·      What Happened to Letter Grades?

·      The Essentials:  Why Do We Use Essential Questions?

·      Has the United States Lost Its Edge? Can It Be Regained?

We’ll use social media tools to brighten the conversation and celebrate your voice. Welcome to the future!

Sincerely,

Glenn Chapin
Headmaster